Matthew Henry on Joshua 8:23-29
We have here an account of the improvement which the Israelites made of their victory over Ai. 1. They put all to the sword, not only in the field, but in the city, man, woman, and child, none of them remained, Jos 8:24. God, the righteous Judge, had passed this sentence upon them for their wickedness, so that the Israelites were only the ministers of his justice and the executioners of his doom. Once in this story, and but once, mention is made of the men of Beth-el, as confederates with the men of Ai, Jos 8:17. Though they had a king of their own, and were not subjects to the king of Ai (for the king of Beth-el is reckoned among the thirty-one kings that Joshua destroyed, Jos 12:16), yet A…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joshua 8:26
Joshua drew not his hand back--Perhaps, from the long continuance of the posture, it might have been a means appointed by God, to animate the people, and kept up in the same devout spirit as Moses had shown, in lifting up his hands, until the work of slaughter had been completed--the ban executed. (See on Exo 17:10).
Adam Clarke on Joshua 8:26
Joshua drew not his hand back - He was not only the general, but the standard-bearer or ensign of his own army, and continued in this employment during the whole of the battle. See on Jos 8:18 (note). Some commentators understand this and Jos 8:18 figuratively, as if they implied that Joshua continued in prayer to God for the success of his troops; nor did he cease till the armies of Ai were annihilated, and the city taken and destroyed. The Hebrew word כידון kidon, which we render spear, is rendered by the Vulgate clypeum, buckler; and it must be owned that it seems to have this signification in several passages of Scripture: (see Sa1 17:6, Sa1 17:45; Job 39:23): but it is clear enough also…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Joshua 8:26
For Joshua drew not his hand back wherewith he stretched out his spear,.... But continued it, and that stretched out:
until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai; just as the hand of Moses was held up, and kept held up until Amalek was discomfited by Joshua, Exodus 17:12.
